Press digest

The following are the top stories in the Maltese and overseas press:

The Times reports that the EU is to hold a special conference to gather pledges for the relocation of migrants from Malta. It also says that the government will amend a law which bans alcohol sales during concerts.

The Malta Independent also reports that EU states are to be asked to pledge refugee relocations from Malta.

In-Nazzjon says the Prime Minister has reiterated the good relations and mutual respect that exist between Malta and Italy. It also gives prominence to the EU pledging conference for Malta.

l-orizzont says the Malta Sports Council has issued tenders at such low rates that workers’ rights cannot be observed.

The overseas press

President Obama has told CBS TV graphic photographs of the body of Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, who was killed by US forces in Pakistan, will not be released for fear that they could be used as propaganda.  

Fox News quotes US Attorney-General Eric Holder saying more names could be added to America’s terrorism watch-list using information seized from the Pakistani compound where bin Laden was killed. He played down concerns about the legality of the operation, telling lawmakers in Congress that bin Laden was a lawful military target whose killing was “an act of national self-defence”. He said it was a “kill-or-capture mission”, adding that bin Laden “made no attempt to surrender”.

Euronews says the European Commission has decided that EU governments in the Schengen zone will be able to re-impose border controls when faced with extraordinary flows of migrants – but such border checks should be temporary.  

The Independent dedicates the whole of its front page to the referendum in which voters in Britain decide today whether to make the first major change in decades in the way members of parliament are chosen. They have to decide whether to move from the current “first past the post” system to the alternative vote system of proportional representation. A Guardian/ICM poll finds 68 per cent plan to vote no while a YouGov poll for The Sun also predicts defeat for AV, showing 40 per cent would vote yes, and 60 per cent no.

The Times quotes British Foreign Secretary William Hague calling on the international community to increase the financial support for “the eruption of democracy movements across the Middle East and North Africa. He said the death of bin Laden could provide a great advance for human rights and freedom.

Al Jazeera says a ship is on its way to Benghazi in the east of Libya after leaving the besieged city of Misurata early on Wednesday. Heavy shelling from forces loyal to Col. Gaddafi had forced the Red Star One to leave with 200 fewer people than planned. Witnesses said at least five people were killed and there was widespread panic among those trying to board the ferry.

Al-Ayyam reports that the leaders of the main Palestinian factions, Fatah and Hamas, have signed the reconciliation pact in Cairo aimed at ending their four-year rift. Israel has denounced the pact because of the militant Hamas’ long history of deadly attacks against Israeli targets. Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas rejected Israel’s opposition to the pact, saying the reconciliation with the militant Islamic group was an internal Palestinian affair.

France 24 says French salvage workers are trying to recover more remains of the passengers and crew of the Air France jet which crashed in the Atlantic Ocean off Brazil two years ago. A robot would try to bring up one body as a feasibility test. Fifty-one bodies of the 228 people on board were found in 2009.

According to The New York Times, the UN Population Report predicts that on October 31, the seventh billionth concurrent human will be born on earth – and it will probably be a boy. This was just one of the revelations in the UN Population Report which also projected that the world's population would reach 9.3 billion people by 2050, approximately 2.3 billion more than today.